5 October 2018

Got a time yet? How quick and agile are you? We have some timely tennis records to get you motivated

Did you know it takes less than a minute to complete our speed and agility test? Once you've done it, submit your result and you'll be entered into the draw to win a pair of Mizuno tennis shoes! Success may be achieved quickly in this on court challenge, but tennis records have been set with times of all shapes and sizes. We countdown ten of the best from the open era. 

Longest span of Grand Slam titles:  17 years 139 days. Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open on 11th September 1999 and her most recent on 28th January 2017 at the Australian Open. 

Shortest time to winning a Grand Slam title:  16 years, 177 days. The teenager Martina Hingis won her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 1997. 

Record number of weeks spent as world no. 1: 377 weeks. Steffi Graf spent more than 7 years at the top of women's tennis throughout her career. 

Most consecutive weeks at world no.1: 237 weeks. Roger Federer held the number one spot from 2nd February 2004 – 17th August 2008. 

Longest tennis match: 11 hours 5 minutes. The first round match between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships was played over 3 days, with Isner eventually winning  6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68. 

Shortest grand slam final: 32 minutes. Steffi Graf emphatically beat Natasha Zvereva  6–0, 6–0  in the 1988 French Open final. 

Longest rally in professional tennis: 29 minutes. Vicki Nelson and Jean Hepner played 643 shots during this period in the longest rally in professional tennis. 

Wimbledon's quickest ever game? 34 seconds. Lukas Rosol speeded through one of his service games against Nadal. 

Time on the shot clock between points: 25 seconds.

Reaction time required to return Sam Groth's record breaking 163.4 mph seve: 0.325 seconds.

It's now your turn to add your speed and agility time to this list!

 

The Test

Equipment: 5 tennis balls, tennis court, method of timing and tennis racket.

Set up: Put five balls on the corners between the service and the baseline (see diagram).The drill

1 Start behind a racket placed on the baseline 

2 Run to ball 1 (right corner baseline), pick it up and place back on the racket

3 Repeat in an anti-clockwise direction for ball 2, 3, 4 and 5. 

4 The test is completed when all 5 balls are returned to the racket. 

Now take the drill for yourself and enter your time in the form below. You can repeat the drill as many times as you like, just re-submit the form with your updated timings.

Mizuno shoesWin a pair of Mizuno tennis shoes (just send in your results to be eligible for the draw).